Copyrightable Innovations Can Thrive Under a Wide Variety of Conditions

Well, the exact quote is, “[I]nnovation can thrive under a wide variety of conditions — from cutthroat competition all the way to very strong IP — depending on the particular logic of innovation in an industry.” [italics in original quote]

This is probably the smartest article I have read recently on copyright and creativity (and also perhaps because in all honesty it mirrors an argument I have made before (note in particular the second paragraph)). Kal Raustiala, a professor at UCLA Law School and the UCLA International Institute, and Chris Sprigman, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, are guest blogging for the “paper of record,” and via a unique analysis of copyright and football (yes, pigskin Texas Longhorn football), they explain why intellectual property rights–specifically copyright–cannot be applied equally across all disciplines and industries, including the presumption that free culture is necessarily good in all realms of creative activity.

Football and pharmaceuticals are as different as music is from poetry, or computer software from architecture, or academic research from motion pictures.  All of these are creative endeavors, all of them involve innovation, but the ways in which these creators innovate, and the legal rules that best fit innovation in these fields, are all very different.  Our copyright and patent laws treat all the industries they reach virtually the same.  Yet all innovation cultures are different.

One could not agree more. Check out Raustiala and Sprigman’s article here. Hook ’em!